# Comboni Missionary Institute Founded (1867)

URL: https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/timeline/1867-comboni-missionary-institute-founded
Location: Verona, Italy
Themes: main-event

To put his Plan for the Regeneration of Africa into practice, Daniel Comboni needed trained personnel committed to the Central African mission, which had been almost abandoned after the deaths at Gondokoro and Holy Cross. With the support of the bishop of Verona, Luigi di Canossa, he set about creating a dedicated missionary society. On 1 June 1867 Comboni founded the Institute for the Missions of Africa in Verona, and in 1872 he established a female congregation, the Pious Mothers of Nigrizia, later the Comboni Missionary Sisters. In 1872 he was appointed pro-vicar of Central Africa and in 1877 vicar apostolic and bishop. He reopened missions in Khartoum, El Obeid and the Nuba Mountains and campaigned against slavery until his death in Khartoum on 10 October 1881. The Comboni Missionaries became the main Catholic missionary body in the southern Sudan, returning after the Mahdist period to found missions across Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria in the twentieth century. They established schools that trained much of the southern elite. Comboni was canonised in 2003 and is honoured as an apostle of Africa. At this point in the timeline (1867), the Khedive of Egypt was Isma'il Pasha (19 January 1863 – 26 June 1879 (khedive from 1867)). Government: the Hakimdar (Governor-General) of the Sudan was Ja'afar Pasha Mazhar (1866 – 5 February 1871).

## Why it matters
The Comboni Missionaries became the leading Catholic missionary order in South Sudan and educated generations of its leaders.

Ruler at the Time: [Isma'il Pasha](https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/rulers/isma-il-pasha)

Hakimdar (Governor-General) of the Sudan: Ja'afar Pasha Mazhar

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comboni_Missionaries_of_the_Heart_of_Jesus)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Comboni Missionaries](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Comboni+Missionaries)
- [Wikipedia — Daniele Comboni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniele_Comboni)
- [Wikipedia — Turkiyya: Egyptian Rule and The Slave Trade (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turco-Egyptian_Sudan)